Systems and methods for processing audio data are known in the art. Most of these systems and methods are used to process audio data for a known audio environment, such as a two-channel stereo environment, a four-channel quadraphonic environment, a five channel surround sound environment (also known as a 5.1 channel environment), or other suitable formats or environments.
One problem posed by the increasing number of formats or environments is that audio data that is processed for optimal audio quality in a first environment is often not able to be readily used in a different audio environment. One example of this problem is the conversion of stereo sound data to surround sound data. A listener can perceive a noticeable change in sound quality when programming changes from surround sound encoding to stereo encoding. However, as the additional channels of audio data for surround sound encoding are not present in the stereo two-channel data, existing surround systems are unable to change the way such sound is processed.